Devotion & Desire
by Oneiromancy
Summary: [AU High School] The drama begins as Rikku’s best friend comes back into her life, but can their friendship withstand all that happens. Cheating, conspiracies, & commitment plus some. [mainly RxG, other couples present]
1. Delays,Arrivals,&Moogles

**Devotion & Desire  
**_Chapter 1 – Delays, Arrivals, & Moogles  
_Written by: Oneiromancy

**Disclaimer:** I don't own FFX-2; or its characters.

**A/N: **The story is based, well I shouldn't say based, but influenced by the song "Devotion and Desire" by Bayside. It'll get around to connecting to it, hopefully, in the end.

_Italics_ – character's thoughts.  
( blahblahblah ) – translated al bhed.

**(O)¸.·(N)·.¸(E)¸.·(I)·.¸(R)¸.·(O)·.¸(M)¸.·(A)·.¸(N)¸.·(C)·.¸(Y)**

* * *

A girl lays on her side with her swirling emerald eyes wide open as she stares into nowhere listening intently to the commotion down the hall.

The voices in the hallway echo all the way to her doorway. She listens to a gruff voice ask, "How you holding up, kid?"

She listens for that other voice as it pauses before it answers, "All right, I hope my aunt takes good care of her. It's pretty lame that she didn't want me around to help out, but I guess I'll understand her choice for sending me off." _I don't understand her choice. _"…By the way thanks for letting me stay here for the year, while things straighten out." _His voice, it still sounds the same._

The middle-aged man laughs, "No problem. I'd do any favor for your mother. You'd like it here." The voice gets louder as they walk closer to her door and stop. "You'll stay in the extra guest room; I think Brother's placed some of his spare school uniforms on the bed. They'll do for now, 'til you go and get yours fitted. Basically, our home is your home. Hungry? You can get something in the kitchen; bathroom is at the end of the hall. It's late; better get some rest, school tomorrow. Nothing better than you're education, you can get a ride with Brother or Rikku."

The girl glances at her clock, the bright red numbers glare back at her. _1:27 A.M._

"Thanks, Cid."

She listens to the shuffling of feet as one of them leaves. She continues to listen intently to the silence for what seemed like forever, before she heard the other person walk into the room and close the door.

_I can't believe Pop is letting him stay here. _She lies on her back and stares up at the ceiling. Tons of glow in the dark stars were plastered all over. Her mind begins to wander to two weeks ago when she first heard the news.

_Rikku and Yuna were sitting at the island counter eating cookies Yuna had baked earlier. Rikku watches as her dad walks in and drops the mail on the counter. "Have I told you, guys, yet?"_

_Yuna looked up at him and smiles, "Tell us what?"_

"_Yah, Pops, what?" Rikku chimes in grinning._

"_Gippal is coming to stay here to finish school."_

"_WHAT? Why?" Rikku's grin quickly disappears._

"_Well, his dad's doing some time for domestic violence, and his mother is staying with his aunt. His mother thinks it'll be good for him to stay somewhere else for a while, while things cool down."_

_Rikku frowns. He's always had it tough. Yuna looks at both of them, "Who's Gippal?"_

_Cid answers, "He's –"_

_Rikku interrupts him before he could say much of anything else, "AN ARROGANT COCKY JERK!" She jumps off her stool and angrily storms off to her room leaving a confused Yuna, and Cid shaking his head._

_Rikku sat in her room that whole day and refused to come out._

_Okay, so maybe I sort of overreacted, but still. The past isn't something I want to deal with right now, and with you back, all that past that I put behind me is all rushing back._ She turned and looked over at her clock, _1:53 A.M. _She closes her eyes and tries counting moogles jumping fences. _One, two, three … why are moogles jumping fences? … Four, five, six …_ She eventually drifts to sleep.

**(O)¸.·(N)·.¸(E)¸.·(I)·.¸(R)¸.·(O)·.¸(M)¸.·(A)·.¸(N)¸.·(C)·.¸(Y)  
**

The 18 year old boy looks around the room. His eyes shifting from one object to the other, a comfy double bed, a large sturdy dresser with full length mirror. _Pretty nice. _He puts down his suitcase and walks over to the bed and looks over the uniforms. He picks one up. White collared shirt with grey slacks. He picks up the red and gray striped tie and plays with it as he walks around the room. He opens the top drawer of the dresser, places the tie on top of the dresser, and rummages through. His eyes fall on a box shoved in the back. He pulled it out and opens it, inside were neatly folded notes.

He sat on the bed and opened the folded piece of paper that was on top.

_To: rikku,_

_i hope ur doing well, u havent responded to any of my emails. i don't understand y. i didnt do anything wrong, did i? u could always tell me when something's wrong. oh, u never gave ur new number to me, how am i supposed to call u? dont u ever check ur email? _

_well things here r the same. My dad's been doing well with his gambling so nothing bad has been happening. good money i guess. me and my mom r trying our best 2 please him. no need 2 worry. school's fine, still feel lost with my best friend not here, n cmon 8th grade work is extremely easy. garret, lilly, leanna, and arroh all miss u, but i miss u the most. i need my partner in crime around. mrs. yarak's dog acts like he owns the neighborhood again. i hope this letter may get a response from u or a call. u know my number. _

_ur best friend n partner in crime_

_gippal_

He rereads the letter again. _This is the last email I ever sent her._ He sighs, folding it up and placing it back into the box. _Why'd she print them out, but not reply to them? _He puts the box back into the drawer and closes it, looking up at the mirror at himself. His one eye scans his reflection of a tall, tan, muscular man with a black eye patch over the right eye. He runs his hand through his spiky golden blonde hair. _Crap, better call her._ He digs through his pocket for his cell phone, goes through his phone list, and dials the number.

He listens to the phone ring.

"Hello?" a woman answers.

"Hey, mom. How you holding up?"

"Fine, oh fine." He hears a voice on the other line. "Your aunt sends her hello. How was your plane trip?"

"Just as plane trips are. Plane food sucks and the chairs are uncomfortable. There was some plane trouble at one of the stops so there was a major delay. I didn't get to Cid's house 'til about 1:00 A.M."

"Oh, I'm sorry, dear. Well, you be good, and get some sleep. Don't you start school tomorrow?"

"Yah, yah… I know, just wanted to call and check in just like you wanted me to"

"Of course, hun. Well you be good. Give Cid my regards and say hello to Rikku, and Brother for me."

"Okay, night mom."

"Good night, Gippal, I love you."

"Love you too, mom."

He turns of his phone and looks over at the clock, _1:53 A.M._ He changes out of his clothes and puts on sweatpants and climbs into bed. _It's going to be a long day tomorrow, but I can't wait to see you._

**

* * *

**

(O)·.¸(N)¸.·(E)·.¸(I)¸.·(R)·.¸(O)¸.·(M)·.¸(A)¸.·(N)·.¸(C)¸.·(Y)

**A/N:** We all have to start somewhere. I'm not sure what I was doing with the time thing. Feedback is always appreciated.


	2. Primping,Posing,&Partners

**Devotion & Desire  
**_Chapter 2 – Primping, Posing, & Partners  
_Written by: Oneiromancy

**Disclaimer:** I don't own FFX-2; or its characters.

**(O)¸.·(N)·.¸(E)¸.·(I)·.¸(R)¸.·(O)·.¸(M)¸.·(A)·.¸(N)¸.·(C)·.¸(Y)**

* * *

Rikku's alarm clock starts blasting "Move Along" by All American Rejects. The Al Bhed girl's eyelids pop open as she turns to her side and turns off her alarm. _5:30 A.M._ _Ugh, This day is gonna be so long. _She pulls off the covers, jumps out of bed and stretches as she walks over and opens her door peering out her room. She looks at the door across her room. Closed. _Good, no one's awake, especially him._ She tiptoes to the bathroom and undresses to take a quick shower. She finishes and hurriedly dresses in her uniform. White collared shirt with plaid red and gray skirt. She puts on white knee-high socks. She blow dries her hair and quickly and elaborately works on her hair and makeup, in a matter of minutes she had her hair up in a ponytail with intricate braids and beads. She smiles in the mirror blowing a kiss to her self admiring her pink lip glossed lips.

She quietly runs back to her room and puts on her black platform shoes. She looks herself over in her full length mirror and twirls around. "Looking good, if I do say so myself." She laughs and does a couple of poses. Grinning, she grabs her bookbag and purse and steps out the room closing the door behind her. She glances down as a shadow moves about the other room. _Crap._ She quickly runs down the stairs and into the kitchen. _Quick breakfast, quick breakfast. Uhmuhm. _She grabs a banana and grabs the keys to her car. She opens the garage and throws her bookbag and purse into the passenger seat of her silver altima. She hops into the driver's seat, turns on the car, peels the banana and shoves it into her mouth, looking at the clock._ 6:08 A.M._ _not bad._ She turns up the volume as "Slow Down" by The Academy Is blasts from her speakers. She puts on her sunglasses as she backs out of the garage and heads for school.

She parks in her usual parking spot at the school. She looks around the parking lot as hardly any cars were parked._ Ha, yah right. Who'd come to school before 7 on the first say of school? _She sighs._ Obviously, me. _She looks at the clock again, _6:23 A.M._ She adjusts her seat back._ I'll just nap for a while. Hopefully Yunie won't get mad at me for ditching her._ She drifts into a light sleep.

**(O)¸.·(N)·.¸(E)¸.·(I)·.¸(R)¸.·(O)·.¸(M)¸.·(A)·.¸(N)¸.·(C)·.¸(Y)  
**

Gippal's eyes flicker open when he hears the running water coming from the bathroom. He looks over at his clock, _5:37 A.M._ _I wonder who's up._ He gets out of bed and fixes it. He opens his suitcase and goes through it, pulling out some gel, shampoo, and other bathroom accessories. He listens as the shower stops running and a blow dryer starts up. _I guess I'll have to pass away time as someone's still using the bathroom._ He starts taking out clothes and putting them in the dresser drawers. When he finished unpacking he hears the door across from his room close shut._ Rikku?_ He heads towards the door and listens as he hears a girl giggle in the other room and say, "Looking good, if I do say so myself." He smiles. _Same old, Rikku._ He continues to listen as the door opens again. He could feel her presence on the other side of the door. He shifts away from the door and pauses as he hears her run down the steps.

He walks over to the window as he watches a silver altima pull out of the driveway. _She's avoiding me. She never got up for school early when we were younger._ He looks over at the clock. _6:08 A.M._ He grabs his things and heads to the bathroom to shower and change.

He walks back to his room and throws the stuff on his bed. He looks over himself in the mirror. _God, I look stupid._ He attempts again to tie his tie, having no luck, gives up. He puts his hands in his pocket and feels something sticky._ Ew, _His eye widens and he pulls out his hand._ Jelly? What the hell, Brother._

He grabs the bookbag from his suitcase and goes downstairs. _I'll cook some breakfast for the others_. He goes through the cupboards and finds everything he needs and all his ingredients. He makes some bacon and eggs. He places the food on the island counter. He puts some food on his plate and sits down on a stool. _Ha, I'm such a good cook._ He continues eating and looks up to see a girl standing in the kitchen doorway. She was a brunette with medium short straight hair. She walked closer, tilting her head, "Good Morning." She smiles sweetly.

Gippal stands up and smoothes his shirt, "Hi," he holds out his hand. "I'm Gippal." He looks at her eyes. One blue and one green._ Interesting._

She takes his hand and shakes it, "I'm Yuna, Rikku's cousin, nice to meet you."

"Yah, I cooked some breakfast if you want some."

"Oh, thank you." He watches as she gets some rice from the rice cooker and scoops some scrambled eggs onto her plate. "First day of school, exciting, huh?"

He laughs, "Sure, I guess. What year are you?"

"I'm a senior."

"Oh, me too."

"Good, you met Yuna, my favorite niece." A voice comes from behind us.

I turned around, "Morning, Cid."

Yuna softly laughs, "You're only niece, good morning, Uncle Cid," Yuna smiles.

He plops bacon and eggs on a plate. "Have a good sleep?"

"Yah, the bed was comfortable."

"OOOOH, BACON AND EGGS," a screech comes from behind near the doorway.

A young man with a blonde Mohawk comes in and dumps the rest of the bacon and eggs on his plate.

"Ah, I see, Brother still has the same appetite." Gippal laughs.

Yuna laughs quietly. Cid lets out a hearty laugh, "Yuna, is Rikku up, yet?"

"Oh, I don't know. I'll go check." She gets up and leaves the room.

Cid turns to Gippal, "The school knows you're enrolling and have your past school records, so they'll tell you what classes you're taking."

Gippal nods, "Okay. Thanks."

"I'd expect to see you in my Advanced Al Bhed class."

Gippal chuckles, "of course."

Yuna walks back into the kitchen with a worried expression on her face, "She's not in her room, and she must've left early."

Cid frowned, "That girl, sometimes she needs to think straight. Okay, well, Yuna if you need a ride, Brother'll drive you. Cid turns to the clock, _6:53 A.M._ "Dammit, I'm late. Hopefully, I'll get no tickets on my way to school. I'll see you all later, I have a meeting." Gippal watches as Cid rushes out of the room and hears the squeal of tires as he zooms out of the driveway.

Everybody finishes eating, Gippal places the dishes into the sink. Gippal was about to do the dishes when Yuna stopped him, "It's okay, you're the guest. I'll do them later when I get home."

Gippal smiles, "Thanks."

"WHAAAT?! No, Yuna, you never do the dishes. You're a guest too. Rikku will do them later." Brother said loudly.

Yuna smiles and shook her head, "Oh, really, I don't mind."

The three of them head to the garage. A nice shiny black sentra sits there. _Wow. Brother has nice wheels._ We all piled into the car. Brother driving, Yuna in the passenger seat, and Gippal was in the back. Brother turns on the car as Breaking Benjamin blasts from his system. Gippal looks out the window as they drove away from the house.

**(O)¸.·(N)·.¸(E)¸.·(I)·.¸(R)¸.·(O)·.¸(M)¸.·(A)·.¸(N)¸.·(C)·.¸(Y)**

Rikku awakes with a startle from someone tapping on her window. She looked up and grinned, waving at a tall girl with short silver hair. She adjusted her seat and looked at the time, _7:18 A.M._ She grabbed her bag and purse, got out of the car, and locked it. "Hey, Paine."

"Morning, Rikku. You've got some drool on your chin."

Rikku blushes and wipes it away with the back of her hand. She rummages through her purse, pops a piece of gum in her mouth, and reapplies her lipgloss. They walked past the tree in front of Rikku's parking spot. "Hello Mister Tree." Rikku grins and looks over at Paine.

"Where's Yuna?"

"Oh, uhm. Yah, I left early without her. She's probably mad, but she'll never show it." Rikku took off her sunglasses and giggles silently to herself as she looks over at Paine trying to smooth her skirt down. _Poor Paine, She so hates our uniforms._ "Sooooooo, are you gonna talk to Baralai today?"

Paine shot her a look as they approached the school's door. "Rikku, do you need to lose respect points?"

Rikku's eyes widen, "NO! Sorry. I was just wondering. I wish I was in the same grade as you and Yunie. It sucks being young."

Paine raised one eyebrow, "whatever you say, Rikku."

Rikku giggles and opens the door and holds it for Paine. "Wonder if I weaseled my way into any senior classes." Rikku winks at Paine.

"We'll find out soon enough." They walk over to a bulletin board where everybody was crowded around. Paine watches as Rikku wiggles her way through the people and looks for their names.

Scanning through the names, Rikku finds which homerooms each of them were in._ Leblanc. Crap. Paine and Yunie have Nooj. _She laughs. _That was some weird wedding they had. _She scanned through the list. _Gippal has Isaaru. Why did I just look for Gippal's homeroom? It doesn't matter to me._ Rikku shakes her head and squeezes her way back to Paine.

Paine looks at her inquisitively. "You and Yunie have Nooj for homeroom." Paine nods.

"All right."

Rikku spots a tall blonde standing with a couple. Rikku squeals, "Look, its Tidus, Lenne, and Shuyin." She grabs Paine's arm and drags her to them. The girl jumps up and down, "Hi, guys."

Lenne hugs Rikku and smiles at Paine, "Hey."

The two almost identical blonde boys say "Yo," in unison.

Rikku grins, "Excited for the first day back? It's your guys' last year here."

Tidus smiles, "Of course, we're excited, by the way, where's Yuna?"

Rikku bites her lip, "I left early, sorry. She's probably getting a ride with Brother."

Tidus makes a face, then smiles, "It's okay, I have the same homeroom as her so I'll see her soon enough."

Rikku grins again, "I'm pumped to see my schedule maybe I have classes with you guys."

Shuyin laughs, "Rikku trying to force senior classes and yet still acts like a kid."

She pouts, "Hey, it's not my fault all my friends are older than me. Well 'cept Baralai." As she said his name she looked over at Paine and winked. Paine glares at her. Rikku giggles. "So of course I want to be in your guys' classes."

"You're most definitely in Advanced Al Bhed with us." Lenne pointed out.

Rikku grinned, "of course, c'mon. I'm the teacher's daughter. I'd better be."

"Plus you're Al Bhed." Tidus exclaims.

Rikku laughs, "Yah, no duh. Thank you, Tidus for pointing out the obvious," the Al Bhed trademark emerald eyes shining in merriment.

Rikku watches as Tidus produces a huge grin and walks away from the group, running up to Yuna as he hugs her and kisses her on the nose. _Awh, they're so cute together. Ugh. I WANT THAT!_ Rikku continues to watch them as they walk over holding hands. "Hi, Yunie, I'm sorry about earlier."

Yuna smiles, "It's okay. You missed meeting Gippal this morning. He cooked breakfast."

Rikku plastered a smile on her face. "That's cool. I didn't even know he cooked." _And all I had was a stupid banana. Poopie._

Lenne turns to Rikku, "Who's Gippal?"

Rikku rolls her eyes, "He's a guy my family knows, who's having trouble at home, so my Pop is letting him stay with us."

"Seems there's more to that." Shuyin pitches in. Rikku makes a face.

"What does he look like?" Tidus asks.

"I don't know I haven't seen him yet." Rikku exclaimed. "Plus it's been years since I last saw him."

Yuna chimes in, "He's tall, blonde spiked hair, with a patch on his right eye."

Paine looked past Yuna and nods in the direction, "Like that guy there?"

Everybody turns to look in the direction she was looking at.

**

* * *

**

**(O)·.¸(N)¸.·(E)·.¸(I)¸.·(R)·.¸(O)¸.·(M)·.¸(A)¸.·(N)·.¸(C)¸.·(Y)**

**A/N:** I'm always sorry if my dialogue and grammar isn't great. Feedback is always appreciated.


	3. Cliques,Clashes,&Classes

**Devotion & Desire  
**_Chapter 3 – Cliques, Clashes, & Classes  
_Written by: Oneiromancy

**Disclaimer:** I don't own FFX-2; or its characters.

**A/N:** Wow, I've actually had this chapter uhm waaay back in July already written out. oo; I was meaning to post it a while ago but I got lazy; got addicted to another final fantasy couple; and then school just came around. So thank you to the people who _did_ review. D; and sorry for the long wait.

**(O)¸.·(N)·.¸(E)¸.·(I)·.¸(R)¸.·(O)·.¸(M)¸.·(A)·.¸(N)¸.·(C)·.¸(Y)**

* * *

Gippal watches as Yuna runs to hug the tall blonde boy. He looks over at the crowd near the bulletin board and makes his way through it. _Homeroom. _He looks for his name._ Isaaru, who ever that is. _He memorizes the room number. He skims through the names again. _Rikku's homeroom, 503, maybe she's there now. _He makes his way out of the crowd and looks around playing with his tie, which was now fixed since Yuna tied it when they were in the parking lot. _I wonder if this is how Rikku felt when she was new to this school._ He leaned against the wall watching people walk past him.

His good eye followed two girls as they walk past him and giggle, putting their heads together; one snuck a glance back at him. He smiled at himself. _Still got it._ He spots a bobbing blonde head in the group where Yuna and the blonde guy were standing in, and slowly walks over. As he steps closer,_They're all staring at me, even her._ He watches as she jumps up saying something and quickly sprints away. _She's most definitely avoiding me._ He smiles and saunters over to the group of her friends who were staring at him. He nods to the group, "Hey."

Yuna smiles up at him, "Hi." She frowns, "You just missed Rikku, but these are our friends." She points to each person as she says their name. "This is Lenne and her boyfriend, Shuyin; my boyfriend, Tidus; and Paine. You, guys, this is Gippal."

Lenne waves and Shuyin nods to Gippal. Paine grunts and Tidus tilts his head and asks, "Hey, so what's the deal with you and Rikku because she's not telling us much."

Gippal laughs, "That's definitely the Rikku I remember. Smiling and laughing when needed but refusing to tell secrets. I don't know if I should be the one to tell you guys."

Lenne smiles, "Its okay, we'll hear out your story. We'll get the story out of her later."

"With force if we have to," Shuyin growls. Lenne pushes him and giggles.

"We've made quite the couple. I'm not quite sure what happened to us, long distance, I guess." Gippal's eye glances at each one of them reading their expressions.

Yuna smiles sweetly, "Awh, now I definitely want to know Rikku's story about what happened."

Paine muttered something that he didn't even hear and then she left.

Tidus grins, "HA! Knew it."

Lenne and Shuyin exchange knowing glances at each other.

Gippal laughs, "I'm kidding," _well sort of._ He smiles at them. "She was a close friend."

Shuyin wiggles his eyebrows, "close, eh?"

Gippal shakes his head smirking and runs his fingers through his hair. Tidus, out of nowhere, blurts, "What happened to your eye?"

Yuna elbowed Tidus, "OUCH! Hey!"

The young Al Bhed man laughs, "Nah, its okay. You know how you're told not to run with scissors, well let's just say. I'm living proof."

Tidus eyes widen, "Wow, really. That's so COOOOL."

Shuyin laughs, Lenne and Yuna look at Tidus giving the 'he's nuts' look. Gippal winks, "so, do you guys know where Rikku went?"

"She said something about going to homeroom early." Lenne answers.

Gippal grins, "Great, thanks."

He waves and walks away from them passing by different cliques and classrooms. _501, 502, 503._ He stops in front of the classroom and peers in. Rikku sat at a desk turned around talking to a boy her age with spiky black hair. Her back faced the doorway _There's Rikku._ His eye looked her up and down. _Looking good as usual. _He shifts his gaze to the person behind her. _Who is that guy and why is she blushing?_

**(O)¸.·(N)·.¸(E)¸.·(I)·.¸(R)¸.·(O)·.¸(M)¸.·(A)·.¸(N)¸.·(C)·.¸(Y)**

_Oh, God. No. _Rikku watches as Gippal begins to approach the group of friends. "Going to homeroom, bye guys." She sprints away.

She reaches room 503 and looks around. _Empty, good. _She takes a seat in the far side of the room in the front. She lays her forehead on the desk. _I can't keep running from him, nor can I face him. _She closes her eyes and just rests her head on her arms still facedown.

"_Pops, he's gonna come I swear. He promised." A 12 year old young Al Bhed whined._

"_Rikku, they're already calling for us to board. We've got to go."_

_The young Rikku jumped up and down, "but Pops…" Rikku pouts._

_A speaker echoes throughout the airport, "Last call for boarding for Flight 22."_

_Rikku looks around hoping to see his face. Why isn't he here? Cid grabs the girl's hand and practically drags her as he gives three tickets to the flight attendant. Rikku takes one final look back, her vision blurry with tears. But he promised…_

Deep in thought, Rikku didn't even realize that she wasn't alone in the room. Someone taps her on her shoulder. Rikku jolts up looking up at the person. _WHAT THE HELL, scare the crap out of me why don't cha. _His blue eyes look down at her with concern, "Are you okay?"

Rikku blinks away tears that were forming in her eyes and puts on a smile, "Yah, tired." She fakes a yawn, and watches as he sits down in the desk behind her. "How was your summer?"

He smiles at her, "Hrm. Rikku tired, that's not a good sign. My summer was good, but not so good since I didn't get to see you."

Rikku blushes and smiles, "Well you could've always called. I'm always up for anything."

He raises his eyebrows, "Anything you say?"

Rikku rolls her eyes, "Not everything." She laughs. The warning bell rings and Rikku jumps by surprise. _Ugh, why am I so jumpy?_ As if on cue, kids start coming into the room sitting near their friends, chatting away. The once silent room was not filled with loud chatter. She turns back to the boy and watches him for a moment as he eyes another girl up and down. She looks at who he was checking out. _Ew, CLAIRE? Look at her hair, what's up with that thing, we may wear uniforms but we're not in a Britney Spears video_. She rolls her eyes and runs her fingers along his arm, "So, Damian, do you think we'll have classes together?"

He looks back at her and smiles, "I hope so."

She winks at him, and then turns herself around to face the front of the room as she watches Leblanc walk in carrying a stack of papers. Rikku waves to her. Leblanc flashes a toothpaste commercial smile and walks over to her. "How was your summer, Love?"

Rikku smiles, "Good, How's Noojie-Woojie?"

"Perfect as usual." The bell rings for a second time. "Let me hand out schedules and I'll tell you about our summer." Leblanc starts calling out names handing out schedules as the room gets louder as each person starts comparing their schedule with their friends. Leblanc hands Rikku her schedule without shouting her name. Rikku grins and looks down at it.

_Rikku_

_Grade: 11_

_1st Period – Jr. English_

_2nd Period – Study Hall_

_3rd Period – Advanced Al Bhed_

_4th Period – Jr. Math_

_Lunch_

_5th Period – Jr. Spira History_

_6th Period – Jr./Sr. Gym _

_7th Period – Advanced Alchemy_

_8th Period – Machina Education_

_Not bad. Definitely have Alchemy and Al Bhed with everyone. Study Hall, maybe. Hopefully they'll be in my gym class or else that'd be a drag. _Rikku smiles content with her schedule turning around to compare schedules with Damian.

**(O)¸.·(N)·.¸(E)¸.·(I)·.¸(R)¸.·(O)·.¸(M)¸.·(A)·.¸(N)¸.·(C)·.¸(Y)**

Gippal opens his locker tossing the books he received in his previous classes in there. He pulls out a piece of paper out of his pocket. He looks it over, a sticky substance accumulated at the corners. _I should've just changed pants._ He sighs and opens it.

_Gippal_

_Grade: 12_

_1st Period – Sr. Spira History _

_2nd Period – Sr. Math_

_3rd Period – Advanced Al Bhed_

_4th Period – Study Hall_

_Lunch_

_5th Period – Sr. English_

_6th Period – Jr./Sr. Gym_

_7th Period – Advanced Alchemy_

_8th Period – Machina Education_

_I've got Cid's class next. _His locker slams shut, he looks up to see a girl with blonde hair put up in pigtails with pink pompoms standing before him leaning against his locker. "Hey, I noticed you're new." She smiles up at him.

"Yah, I am. I'm Gippal." He says holding out his hand.

She shakes his hand, not letting go. "I'm Claire," still continuing to smile at him.

He rubs the back of his neck. "I need my hand back to take notes later." She giggles and let's go.

"Hey, Gippal," a familiar voice calls. He turns to look at the person who said it. Tidus and Yuna stand not far away holding hands.

Gippal nods at them, and then turns to Claire, "Nice meeting you, I'll see you later."

Claire smiles, leans in and kisses his cheek, "Hopefully, sooner than later." She waves as she turns and walks away towards her group of friends. _First day here and already I got a girl chasing me._ He laughs to himself, walking over to Tidus and Yuna.

"She's a slut, y'know?" Tidus informs him.

Gippal shows off a cocky grin, "Oh, I know," wiggling his eyebrows.

Tidus scoffs, "I'm serious, total shark, always looking for new guys to prey on." Gippal still continues to grin.

Yuna shakes her head, ignoring their little guy talk, "So how's your classes been?"

"Good, I should be heading to Cid's Advanced Al Bhed class."

Yuna smiles pleasantly, "Oh, us too, we'll walk there together."

The walk to class didn't last that long since Gippal's locker was right across the hall of Cid's classroom. The three of them enter the room; Gippal looks around at the students who were already there. He spotted Paine, Shuyin, and Lenne sitting in the back. He follows Yuna and Tidus as they take seats in front of them.

Shuyin bangs his head on the desk, "We've only been to two classes and I have a project due next week and there are already plans for a paper."

Lenne looks at him concerned and rubs his back. Gippal puts in, "and I doubt Cid's gonna let up on the workload."

Shuyin groans, and Paine glares at him, "suck it up."

Gippal turns around in time to see Rikku walk through the threshold with a white haired boy. _She sure gets around. Who am I kidding, its Rikku, she's friends with everybody. _His eye follows Rikku watching as she skips towards them as the boy trails behind her. "Hi, Guys! I'm so EXCIIIITED to have a class with you all!" She looks over at the boy, "Baralai is too but he's good at not showing it." She winks at the boy, who blushes and takes a seat next to Paine. She takes a seat next to Gippal, not even acknowledging his presence.

Gippal turns towards her, "Hey, Cid's girl, I think you've been avoiding me today."

She turns to him acting surprise, "Oh, I didn't see you; I don't think we've met." She turns her attention to her bookbag as she takes out a notebook.

_Ouch_. "Whatever you say, Cid's girl, but I can tell your friends stories of our childhood." He watches her face as she frowns and looks at him.

"What do you want? Why'd you even want to possibly come here?"

He could feel the six pairs of eyes staring at him. They too wait for the answers. He shows off his cocky grin, "Well we have Advanced Al Bhed together, of course."

Mecdah ib, Drec ec Advanced Al Bhed, drana femm pa hu English eh drec lmycc. Ajano xiacdeuh eh lmycc sicd pa cbugah eh Al Bhed. Ev oui lyh'd taym fedr dryd tnub dra lmycc. ( Listen up, This is Advanced Al Bhed, there will be no English in this class. Every question in class must be spoken in Al Bhed. If you can't deal with that drop the class. ) Rikku and Gippal both turn from each to watch Cid standing in the front of the room.

As Cid starts writing Al Bhed words on the board, Gippal sneaks a sideway glance at Rikku. She was busying herself with copying the notes on the board. He looks back down at his own notebook. _This is going to be a long day._

A note drops on to his desk. Glancing at Rikku, he opens it and his eye widens.

* * *

**(O)·.¸(N)¸.·(E)·.¸(I)¸.·(R)·.¸(O)¸.·(M)·.¸(A)¸.·(N)·.¸(C)¸.·(Y)**

**A/N:** Whoosh. I'm super lazy, I was meaning to add more to this chapter but I'm not quite sure what it was, sooooo I'll just post it. x)) WHOO! Yah ohkay. REVIEW, you know the drill. xD Man, I suck at being descriptive. Believe me, the worst critic is yourself.


	4. Notes,Nachos,&Nausea

**Devotion & Desire  
**_Chapter 4 – Notes, Nachos, & Nausea  
_Written by: Oneiromancy

**Disclaimer:** I don't own FFX-2; or its characters but I do own Claire & Damian.

**(O)¸.·(N)·.¸(E)¸.·(I)·.¸(R)¸.·(O)·.¸(M)¸.·(A)·.¸(N)¸.·(C)·.¸(Y)**

* * *

Rikku tries to suppress a smile as she watches her father approach Gippal that was still holding the note, red-handed. _Psh. I bet Gippal thought it was gonna say something good._

"Drana ec hu huda byccehk eh so lmycc." ( There is no note passing in my class. ) Cid's stern voice echoed throughout the silent classroom as every student had their eye on Gippal and Cid.

Rikku watched Gippal shove the note in his pocket, a little shamed face, he mutters, "Cunno." ( Sorry. )

Rikku's eyes widen when Cid turns from Gippal to face her. Speaking in fast fluent Al Bhed which more than half the class was struggling to understand; but Gippal and Rikku understood perfectly well, "Tuh'd drehg E ghuf oui byccat dryd du res. E'mm cbayg du oui mydan ypuid ouin essydina paryjeun yht tecnibdehk so lmycc." ( Don't think I know you passed that to him. I'll speak to you later about your immature behavior and disrupting my class. )

Rikku pouts as she watches Cid return to the front of the classroom to resume with teaching the class. Still pouting, she returns to doodling on the side of her notebook. _Ha. Immature, yah right. Okay, maybe it was, but still. Who does he think he is to just talk to me as if he isn't sorry for what happened._

The rest of the class was uneventful, even when Rikku snuck sideway glances at Gippal out of the corner of her eye. She was slightly disappointed that he wasn't doing the same. _Ugh. What am I doing? Rikku, pull yourself together, girl. You will not let him get to you._

**(O)¸.·(N)·.¸(E)¸.·(I)·.¸(R)¸.·(O)·.¸(M)¸.·(A)·.¸(N)¸.·(C)·.¸(Y)**

Gippal shifts from one leg to the other while he stands in line waiting to get his lunch. _What does Rikku think she's pulling with that note?_ Just thinking about it, he pulls it out of his pocket and opens it. In Rikku's loopy handwriting it said:

_HA! Don't you know better than to open notes in Cid's class._

He smirks to himself, thinking about the expression on her face when Cid reprimanded her and not him for the note. _Her plan backfired._ He reaches over and grabs a tray of nachos. He makes a face. _The meat looks like dog food._ He pays for it at the cash register.

Leaving the line, he spots Rikku's cousin. He saunters over, setting his tray down, "Hey."

Yuna smiles, "Hi." Her blue and green eyes watch the blonde as he takes a seat across from her.

Trying to make conversation, he says, "Is the meat supposed to look like dog food?"

She laughs, "It does, but the nachos are by far the favorite choice for lunch." She takes a bite of her own nachos. "It's not that bad."

He nods taking a bite and looking around the lunch room. He spots Tidus making his way to their table with Lenne and Shuyin in tow.

"Hey guys!" Tidus leans over from behind and kisses Yuna's cheek, then takes a seat next to her.

Yuna grins, "Hi, hun." She looks over at the couple, "Hey."

Gippal nods a hello, but distracts himself looking around the cafeteria again. He spots Rikku conversing with that kid from earlier. His eyes narrow.

**(O)¸.·(N)·.¸(E)¸.·(I)·.¸(R)¸.·(O)·.¸(M)¸.·(A)·.¸(N)¸.·(C)·.¸(Y)**

Rikku sighs. After class, Cid lectured her on being more mature and that she should be more accommodating to Gippal, despite their past and lack of friendship stability in the past five years. _Accommodating my ass. He's going to be here for a year, A YEAR!_

Still seething and not paying attention where she's going, she bumps into something or actually more like someone.

"Hey! Watch it!" A shrill feminine voice screeches.

Rikku looks up to see the same girl from earlier that Damian was checking out. _Ugh… Claire. Not now._ She plasters on a fake smile, "Oh, sorry, wasn't paying attention." Knowing that Claire has an ego she attempts a compliment, "Oh my, your hair looks so lovely today."

Claire glares at her, "Stupid underclassman, watch where you're going next time." She eases up on her glaring, and reaches a hand up to touch one of her pigtails, "But thank you." She looks critically at Rikku's hair, "Maybe you should get some hair styling tips." The girls around her snicker as if Claire said something really witty.

Rikku resists the urge to roll her eyes, "Uh, yah. It's just so hard to get good tips to come by these days." _You'd think she take her own advice. _Forcing a wave, she walks past Claire and her group of friends and makes her way to the cafeteria.

She looks over the choice of food. _Oh my, nachos. The meat is probably the same stuff I feed my dog. Ugh, if I knew it was going to be nachos today, I'd have packed a lunch. _Her stomach grumbles in protest. _But nooooo. I had to be in a hurry. Stupid Gippal. It's all his fault. _She grabs a tray of nachos anyways despite her thoughts about it and lines up to pay for it.

"I love nachos."

Rikku turns around and tilts her head to see who said that, "Oh really?" Her eyes surveying a boy with raven hair and blue eyes.

He grins at her, flashing his two rows of perfect teeth, "Yah… well not so much the meat, but the cheese is great."

She smiles, "Whatever you say, Damian." She turns around and pays for her meal and waits for him to do the same. "How's your morning been so far?"

"Eh, all right." He raises an eyebrow at her, "What was with the note passing thing in Cid's class."

Rikku frowns at the thought of being reminded about that, "Oh, nothing. Pops was just overreacting."

He nods, "I see. Well… uhm… about Al Bhed class." He sheepishly rubs his hand on the back of his head. "Do you think you can help me? There's no way I understand what Cid is saying in that class."

Her face brightens up again, "Yah, sure."

He smiles in return, "Good." He looks around and spots his friends, "I gotta go; I'll catch you later."

She watches him walk over to his table of friends, which happened to include a skanky blonde girl with pigtails and her gang of friends. She rolls her eyes and makes her way to her table of friends, not even realizing a certain blonde young man who's been causing much trouble for her was sitting there.

**(O)¸.·(N)·.¸(E)¸.·(I)·.¸(R)¸.·(O)·.¸(M)¸.·(A)·.¸(N)¸.·(C)·.¸(Y)**

Gippal watches Rikku slam her tray down as she plops down in the seat next to him. "Hey guys!"

Everybody says hello in unison and continues with their conversations and eating. "Hey."

She practically jumps out of her skin when she realizes who she's sitting next to. "Don't you have somewhere to be?"

"Last time I checked, I could sit wherever and whomever, I want." His eye sparkling with mischievous.

"Why aren't you getting this? I don't want to talk to you or spend time with you."

He raises his hands in defense, "I just want to know what the hell is wrong with you."

Her eyes narrow, "Nothing is wrong with me."

He rolls his eye, "Sure."

Her voice getting slightly higher, "Yes, I'm sure."

"Nothing to do with me being here?"

She glares at him, "Fine, you want to know. I don't want you here. I don't need you here. You're just not supposed to be here. We're not best friends anymore; we're not even friends now. Why can't you get that? Is it too hard for you to understand?"

Gippal doesn't say anything but a slight hurt look flashes in his eye. _She's losing it. If she would just tell me what I did wrong in the first place._

She looks around the table at the others realizing that everybody was staring at her. "UGH! I'm not hungry anymore." They all watch her walk off, leaving her tray of untouched nachos behind.

Tidus was the first to speak after she leaves, "What was that about?"

Everybody looks at him with the 'you're an idiot' face, even Yuna. "Hun, Rikku, obviously, has some bad history with Gippal."

Realization finally dawned on him, "OOOOOH."

**(O)¸.·(N)·.¸(E)¸.·(I)·.¸(R)¸.·(O)·.¸(M)¸.·(A)·.¸(N)¸.·(C)·.¸(Y)**

Rikku's stomach growls for the umpteenth time that afternoon. _This day will not end. Why the hell did I skip lunch?_ She pulls out her schedule and looks at it. _Oh fun, Machina Education. _She grins. _And it's the last class of the day._

She walks into the room; the desks weren't like the usual ones. Instead there were work tables with stools placed around them. She sits down on one of the stools at a table that was near the front of the room.

Her emerald eyes survey the room as students start trickling in one or two at a time; the classroom slowly filling up. She props her elbow on the table and rests her head in her hand; as she looks at teacher. _Psh, yah. Shinra, the boy genius. There's something wrong with a kid teaching a class of high school students. _She takes out her notebook. _Child prodigy._ The late bell rings and her attention is caught at the door when she spots Gippal saunter in.

_WHY? WHY? WHY? Am I being punished? He's in my Al Bhed, Gym, Alchemy, and this class too. Why is he even late? We got out of that class early. _Her eyes trail after him as he takes a seat at a table furthest from where she was sitting. Her eyes narrow as she notices a tinge of something red on his lips.

Shinra speaks up, indicating for all the conversations to cease, "Welcome to Machina Education. In this class you will learn about…" Rikku changes her attention from Shinra to stare at Gippal. _That is so red lipstick. Who has he been lip-locking? Ugh, he's still the same. _Her thoughts are interrupted by her stomach growling in aggravation again. She hugs her stomach to quiet its fairly loud talking. _Oh crap, cramp._ Rikku freezes in a momentary pain.

She blushes slightly as the kid next to her looks at her weirdly. She smiles in hesitation and tries to take her mind off of her stomach. "and machina… machina… machina…" She slightly zones out of Shinra's introduction to his class. Her vision blurring until suddenly everything goes black.

She slumps forward, completely unaware of her surroundings.

* * *

**(O)·.¸(N)¸.·(E)·.¸(I)¸.·(R)·.¸(O)¸.·(M)·.¸(A)¸.·(N)·.¸(C)¸.·(Y)**

**A/N: **Rikku is probably a tad out of character with this hostility towards Gippal, so yah sorry about that, but I think I said something about OOCness in a previous chapter. Also, sorry for not updating as soon as I thought I would, but I figured I had time to update now since I'm avoiding working on a presentation for my American Lit. Class. I should have some type of system for my updating… but unfortunately I don't; since I kind of update when I feel like it. But I'll try to make the next update sometime this weekend, hopefully. Anyways, thank you for the reviews and I hope you enjoyed this chapter. ;))


	5. Rescuer,Rain,&Realizations

**Devotion & Desire  
**_Chapter 5 – Rescuer, Rain, & Realizations  
_Written by: Oneiromancy

**Disclaimer:** I don't own FFX-2; or its characters. As for the snippet of song I used, not mine either. It's 'Slowdown' by The Academy Is.

**(O)¸.·(N)·.¸(E)¸.·(I)·.¸(R)¸.·(O)·.¸(M)¸.·(A)·.¸(N)¸.·(C)·.¸(Y)**

* * *

Rikku opens her eyes, and looked around. She was lying on a small cot, as her eyes shifted around the room she saw a desk and some waiting chairs. _Where is everyone? Oh crap, I must've passed out in class._

The door opens and in walks the nurse and the all too familiar blonde man holding her book bag and purse. "You're finally awake, I see. That's good." Rikku sits up on the cot, swinging her legs over the side. The nurse is a tall fair young lady with blonde hair and thin-framed glasses. "I wanted to ask you, did you eat anything today?"

Rikku's green eyes were still on Gippal as she watched his concern, feeling it too rude to stair she shifts her gaze to the floor. "No, not really. I had a banana for breakfast."

The nurse nods and walks over to her desk and opens a drawer. "That explains it, because you didn't have your proper amount of sleep and didn't get the energy from your food, you passed out." She walks over to Rikku and hands a bag of crackers. "Here. You should eat something."

Rikku smiles gratefully, "Thanks."

"This young man helped you here. You should thank him." The nurse made the first acknowledgement of Gippal being in the room.

Gippal rubs the back of his head sheepishly, "It was nothing."

Rikku makes a half smile, her mouth still filled with crackers. "Weth, I'd jus thake these thackers anth go."

The nurse looks up from her paperwork and smiles "Finish what you're eating and then try talking, dear."

Rikku swallows and grins, "Sorry, I said: Can I leave now?"

"Ah yes, you are free to go. Just remember that you shouldn't be skipping meals, and one banana isn't considered a breakfast."

Rikku laughs, "Yah, yah. I promise." She walks over to Gippal and takes her things from him and walks out the door. Gippal follows her out of the room.

She walks down the hallway; it's deserted of all students seeing as the classes let out some time ago. "Why are you following me?"

"Is that any way to thank the guy who carried you to the nurse's?"

Rikku rolls her eyes and stops walking to turn around face him, "Fine, Thank you." She turns back around and continues walking to the entrance. Still hearing the footsteps behind her she looks back at him, "Why are you still following me?"

It's Gippal's turn to roll his eye, "Because I need a ride home, seeing as I don't have a car, and it wouldn't be that great to walk in that." He points to the clear glass doors of the entrance as he emphasizes the last word.

Rikku's eyes widen as she sees sheets of rain pouring down onto the pavement. "Are you serious? It was fine earlier." She sighs and says, her words dripping with sarcasm. "This day just keeps getting better and better." She shoves the last of the crackers into her mouth.

"So you think I can get a lift with you?"

She sighs again and swallows, "Yah, I guess." She takes her car keys out of her purse. "Well, I guess we'll get ready to run."

She opens the door, and sprints to her car, the warm rain drops pelting her body and her footsteps splashing in the puddles. _Obviously running doesn't do anything, I'll still get soaked. _She frowns and opens the car door and plops in, shaking her head of all the clinging rain drops. She looks over at Gippal who is sitting in the passenger seat slicking back his wet hair. She smiles despite herself.

He glances over at her, "What are you smiling about?"

"The fact that you look like a drowned rat."

He chuckles, "Yah, well you don't look much better."

She looks in the rearview mirror to take a quick glance at her reflection. She did look like something that was drowned. Her intricate beaded ponytail was limp, water dripping down onto her shoulders. She looks down at her clothes which was equally soaked as her hair. She lets out a giggle, "You're right."

He smiles at her, "Exactly, so don't go telling me I look bad, which you'd be wrong anyways. I look sexy all the time."

She snorts. _This is nice. I forgot he was like that._ Her thoughts begin to trail back to the reason why she was unhappy with him in the first place. She frowns and starts the car and pulls out of the parking lot.

Once she reached the first stop sign, Gippal breaks the silence, "What are we listening to?"

"The Academy Is."

"Never heard of them."

"Oh really?"

"Yah, what happened to you listening to pop music like Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera?"

She snorts, "It's called I finally developed a good taste in music."

He chuckles, "Right. Do you remember that one time for the talent show at school when Jack Celebrasa danced around to Britney Spear's 'I'm a Slave' wearing a pink thong over his pants and a nasty blonde wig."

Rikku laughs, "Oh my God, YAH! I was so scared for my life. What happened to him?"

"I still think he's taking his time of coming out of the closet, but he's fine. Last year he set the record for eating hotdogs, and then he puked it all onto the floor."

She smiles, "He was such a weird kid."

Her last statement drifted the two into silence as they recalled their past. The music playing in the background, as Rikku nears her house.

She starts pulling into the driveway and what was the beginning of a hum shifted into her singing quietly, "She said 'Alright, alright, slow down!' Oh no, oh no, we won't, cause I regret every word that I said to ever make her feel like she was something special or that she ever really mattered. Did she ever really matter? Hollywood hills and suburban thrills…"

"You were always able to sing."

Rikku stops when he mentions it and parks the car in the garage. She's about to step out of the car, but Gippal grabs her wrist. "Wait."

She sits back down and looks over at him, "What?"

"I wanted to ask you, without you blowing up in my face, but why?"

"Why, what?"

Gippal rolls his eye, "You know, the whole being hostile towards me, why? What did I do to even deserve that?"

Rikku sighs finally realizing that she had to tell him. "You'll probably think it's stupid, but the day I was leaving you promised that you would be there at the terminal. You never showed up, Pops was practically going to drag me onto the plane because I refused to leave without you saying goodbye to me."

Gippal frowns, "That's it?"

Rikku narrows her eyes, "Yah, it was a big deal. My best friend doesn't even show up the day that I'm leaving. I never got to see you again."

"Is that the reason why you never replied to my emails? I told you I was sorry about that."

"You kept telling me you were sorry, but you never gave a reason why."

Gippal frowns, "You want to know why? I wanted to be there. I really did, but…" He shifts uncomfortably in his seat as he recalls his past. "My dad came home from some afternoon gambling, he had been drinking and he lost a good amount of money. He was frustrated and took out his anger at my mom and me. We escaped and went to my aunt's. You know how my mom is; she didn't even want to tell her sister what her husband was doing to us… always optimistic, thinking that my dad would get better and get out of his slump and addiction. I know you're important but my mom needed me more."

"Oh…" She looks down at her hands folded in her lap, "well, now, this just makes me seem selfish. You could've just told me that in the first place, why didn't you?"

"I felt ashamed, I don't know I felt bad I broke a promise and that I wasn't going to see you again. It's not exactly the same to email you and tell you that. I figured you'd give your new number and I'll tell you over the phone, but you never did. You didn't even reply back."

She tries to crack a smile, "But we're okay now, right?"

He smiles back, "Yah, we are."

"Oh, I'm sorry about the note thing, and blowing up at lunch."

He chuckles, "its okay, plus you were more the brunt of Cid's wrath than I was."

She rolls her eyes, "Don't remind me." She looks at his eye patch, "What's with the eye patch?"

He lifts a hand to his patch, "A gift from my dad."

"The patch or what happened underneath it?"

"Both."

She raises her eyebrows, "Your dad gave you an eye patch for something he did to you. He's just messed up."

Gippal gives a half smile. "Yah."

She looks around. "As nice as it is to play catch-up in the car, is it all right if we go inside now? I definitely would prefer a change of clothes."

He smirks, "A change of clothes would be nice. Although that shirt looks good now that it's wet." His eyes traveling down her body to rest on a certain female area.

Rikku's eyes widen as she realizes what he was hinting at, "Perv." She crosses her arms in front of her chest.

They make their way to the garage door. Rikku is ahead of Gippal, as she turns around to Gippal, "I'm glad things are straightened out."

Gippal genuinely smiles at her, "Yah, me too."

* * *

**(O)·.¸(N)¸.·(E)·.¸(I)¸.·(R)·.¸(O)¸.·(M)·.¸(A)¸.·(N)·.¸(C)¸.·(Y)**

**A/N: **Ha. I have no clue if any of you like The Academy Is, but I was listening to it while I typed this chapter. I pictured Rikku to be the type to listen to alternative (I don't really know my genre of music… so no music fanatics eat me), y'know the ones where you're toe-tapping and you know all the words to. Why? I have no clue.

As for the 'I'm a Slave' memory, that seriously happened; scariest thing I've ever seen. Only it wasn't at a talent show but for a Mr. (Name of Town) type of thing, but it was for the talent portion. Interesting pointless information.

For picturing the nurse, I thought of Quistis from Final Fantasy VIII, in case you're like 'wow this chick can't describe stuff'. Claire is supposed to look like a young Britney Spears, in case I sucked at describing that. Just think of her in that 'Hit me baby, one more time' music video. As for Damian, picture Squall from Final Fantasy VIII, but with black hair.

Anyways, I said I would make an update this weekend and I did. Yayness! I'm very excited about that. So I hope you enjoyed this chapter and are happy that Rikku and Gippal have finally straightened things out. Feedback is always nice. ;))


	6. EatingHabits&ErraticBehavior

**Devotion & Desire  
**_Chapter 6 – Eating Habits & Erratic Behavior  
_Written by: Oneiromancy

**Disclaimer:** I don't own FFX-2; or its characters.

**(O)¸.·(N)·.¸(E)¸.·(I)·.¸(R)¸.·(O)·.¸(M)¸.·(A)·.¸(N)¸.·(C)·.¸(Y)**

* * *

Rikku skips down the stairs after changing out of her wet school uniform, humming to some random song that she had stuck in her head. Her hair was let down from its intricate beaded ponytail so it could dry.

She enters the kitchen and starts scrounging around for an after-school treat. Content in finding a bag of her second favorite chips, she sits down on a stool located near the island counter.

_It's almost like a burden has been lifted off my shoulders. _She smiles to herself as she stuffs her mouth with a handful of chips.

"You're a pig." A voice rings out in the kitchen.

Rikku turns to look at her newfound kitchen companion. Gippal stood at the doorway watching her. He, too, changed out of his school uniform to wear a baggy pair of jeans and an oversized red t-shirt.

"Am not," she retorts, chewing with her mouth open to either gross out Gippal more or just lack of manners.

Gippal raises one eyebrow, "Whatever you say, but aren't you hungry? Chips aren't exactly going to fill you up." He said as he reached for a handful of chips, only contradicting what he was telling her. He sits down in the stool next to her.

Rikku looks up thoughtfully, "I guess," stressing on the last word, still reaching for more chips. She looks up at Gippal, watching him eat, and her eyes rest on his lips. _Oh yah._ "Y'know, I'm curious."

He turned to look at her, chewing carefully, then swallowing before he spoke, "About what?"

She tilts her head, "Abooout, who you were kissing?"

He face flushes a little, "I wasn't kissing anybody."

She rolls her eyes, "Riiiight, and I'm not Al-Bhed."

"I wasn't." He said simply.

She scoffs, "Mhm, whatever you say." She huffs and crosses her arms, "Fine, what a nice way to restart our friendship is keeping secrets from each other."

Gippal rolls his eye and sighs, "If you must know. I wasn't kissing anybody, but this girl kissed me."

Her eyes widen, "See, I was right. You're such a liar, Gippal. I'll tell your mom on you."

He frowns, "I am not. You asked who **I** was kissing, which I wasn't, someone was kissing **me**."

Rikku furrows her eyebrows together. "Same thing, who was it?"

He grabbed another chip and before he popped it in his mouth, he said, "Do you know a girl named Claire?"

Her pretty face scrunched up in disgust, "I'm hope you're talking about some other Claire."

His face contorts in confusion, "I don't know. She was wearing her hair in, uhm, pigtails? They had furry thingies in them."

Her expression still stayed the same. "Ew."

"Ew, what?" A new voice resounds in the kitchen.

Rikku turns around on her stool, "Hey, Yunie! Where ya been?"

Yuna smiles and walks over between the two blondes. "I was over at Tidus. Now what are you 'ewing' about?" She reaches for a chip and nibbles at it. Her book bag was slung on one shoulder. She was still wearing her school uniform.

Before Rikku could answer, Gippal cuts in and says, "She's overreacting. She's just jealous that I was kissed on my first day here." His lips upturn in a smug smirk.

Rikku punches Gippal's arm, "Oh that SO isn't even close." She turns back to her cousin, "Claire kissed him."

Yuna's eyebrows rise up, "Really?" She nibbles her chip some more, "Why am I not surprised?"

"It's because I'm just too good looking."

Yuna chuckles, "No, that's not it." She watches Gippal smirk disappear. "No, I mean not that you aren't good to look at" His smirk returns.

"Great, try to inflate his ego." Rikku mutters.

"It's just Claire is well-known for, y'know, getting around. Wasn't Tidus telling you about this earlier?" Yuna explained.

"HA. SEE!" Rikku exclaims in triumph as she shoves more chips in her mouth.

Gippal rolls his eye, "So she has a reputation. Who doesn't? Under her façade, she is just this insecure girl that wants reassurance."

Rikku tilts one eyebrow up, "Since when do you go around using the word façade?"

He grins, "Since now."

Rikku shakes her head and gets up to get a drink. "Oh, Rikku, I have news for you."

"Hrm?" Rikku questions as she tilts the water pitcher to pour herself a glass, not looking up.

"Well, I was thinking that I would try to run for Student Council President."

Rikku looks up, over-pouring the water. "That's great! You'll make a great president." She realizes she's made a mess and grabs a towel to dry the counter.

Yuna smiles pleasantly, "Mhm. I hope so, I have so many ideas, but Rikku, I want you to be my campaign manager."

Rikku practically chokes on her water, between coughs, she says, "Really? Oh, I'll be your best campaign manager EVER!" She clears her throat and frowns, "Wait, why isn't Tidus going to do the job?"

"I love Tidus, but I don't think he's capable of doing it, plus you're family." Yuna explains.

"Awwwh. Okay, as long as it's okay with Tidus, I'll do it."

Sitting quietly throughout the conversation, Gippal joins in, "Wait, why isn't Tidus capable of doing it?"

Both Rikku and Yuna raised an eyebrow. Rikku was the one to speak though, "You mean, you haven't noticed how slow he is sometimes?"

"Gippal's eyebrows furrow together, "Yah, but I thought it was just him trying to be funny."

Yuna lips form a smile, "If you only knew."

**

* * *

**

(O)·.¸(N)¸.·(E)·.¸(I)¸.·(R)·.¸(O)¸.·(M)·.¸(A)¸.·(N)·.¸(C)¸.·(Y)

**A/N: **Eep, finally updated. Yay? Hrm. Sorry I took a while, I wasn't sure where I wanted to go with the story. ;l Also, sorry that it's shorter in comparison to my other ones, which really isn't saying much; but I wanted to introduce the election idea because that's what the next chapter is based on. D; Well, hopefully you all enjoyed this chapter. 

Feedback is appreciated as usual, and I thank those that reviewed. It gives me some idea whether or not you're enjoying what I'm writing.


	7. EmphaticElectionPt1

**Devotion & Desire  
**_Chapter 7 – Emphatic Election Pt. 1  
_Written by: Oneiromancy

**Disclaimer:** I don't own FFX-2; or its characters but I do own Claire & Damian.

**(O)¸.·(N)·.¸(E)¸.·(I)·.¸(R)¸.·(O)·.¸(M)¸.·(A)·.¸(N)¸.·(C)·.¸(Y)****

* * *

**

Gippal walked through the doors of the school. It had been a week since Rikku agreed to help with Yuna and her little student council presidency campaign. Surprisingly, things were going well. Rikku was an expert at convincing a good portion of the student body to vote for Yuna.

He spotted one of the many posters on the wall. It was a picture of Yuna, smiling kindly at whoever took the picture. In bold letters it said:

**Vote for Yuna, or you're a tuna.**

Gippal shook his head. Tidus wanted to take part in it, a tad upset that he wasn't chosen for campaign manager. Yuna feeling bad let him take control of the posters. Rikku hadn't seen these ones yet. She'd probably flip out at Tidus's catch phrase.

"OH MY GOD!" Someone screeched behind him. He turned around to see the owner of the voice, knowing full well who would react like that. Rikku glared at the poster, pointing at it with a shaky hand. "Who put those posters up? And why did no one tell me that they would be saying that?" She asked exasperatedly.

Gippal lifted an eyebrow up and turned back to the poster, "I actually thought it looks good."

"Good?! GOOD?! What is wrong with you?" Her voice was getting louder and pitchy as she hyperventilated. Students gave weird looks as they walked by, scurrying to class not wanting to be there if Rikku's head were to explode. Only one student stayed to watch.

Her snooty voice echoed in the hallway as she approached the blonde pair. "Vote for Yuna, or you're a tuna. Cute. Are you saying that if everybody votes for me that they'd be fish? That's not nice publicity. I wouldn't be surprised if you lost supporters, because of such a childish thing."

Rikku glared at the all too familiar blonde girl, while Gippal flashed a smile and greeted her, "Hey Claire."

Claire returns the smile warmly, "Hi Gippal." She ignored Rikku and continued to address Gippal, "So, who are you voting for?"

He stared blankly at the two blonde girls as if he were a deer caught in headlights. On one side, there was Rikku, whom after five years of miscommunication that he was now becoming better friends with. On the other side, there was Claire, the girl he had to admit that he'd like to flirt with her. He wasn't stupid; either girl would bite his head off if he even chose a side.

Quick thinking as usual, he replied, "I don't know yet, I thought I would hear both of the speeches before I voted." After the words left his mouth and he saw Rikku narrow her eyes at him, he regretted it.

On the other hand, Claire smiled, "Oh, you'll like mine, and when I win, I'm throwing a party, you're invited." She waved her hand as she walked away.

Gippal continued to watch her before he felt a jab in his stomach. "What do you mean you don't know?" He looked down at her and shrugged. "Ugh! You're voting for Yuna and not for her." She said the last word with such distaste.

"Well it's only fair if I decide afterwards." He said lamely.

Her pretty face was contorted in a frown. She left off in a huff, leaving him by himself next to the fish poster.

The tall lone blonde shrugged. _There is no right or wrong with that girl._

**(O)·.¸(N)¸.·(E)·.¸(I)¸.·(R)·.¸(O)¸.·(M)·.¸(A)¸.·(N)·.¸(C)¸.·(Y)**

Leaving Gippal to get his thoughts together, Rikku skipped off. Even though she wasn't happy with the posters; Claire irritated the hell out of her; and Gippal was probably not going to side with her on the whole election thing, yet she was still happy. Her tinge of happiness was all due to a single source.

After her agreement with Damian, she came to school early to have a little tutor session with him. She looked forward to them, besides the fact that Damian was really horrible at speaking Al Bhed. How he was able to even get into the advanced class was beyond her comprehension.

She stopped skipping once she reached the room that they had been meeting in. She tried flattening out the wrinkles in her skirt with her hand before she entered the room. It was empty. She looked down at her watch. She was on time. Actually, she was late. Rikku frowned and took a seat in one of the desks and took out the Al Bhed textbook.

Humming a random tune that had her tapping her foot, she flipped aimlessly through the textbook. _Where was he? _She took another glance at her watch. First period was going to start soon. She frowned again. _He could've called. Geez._

She closed the book and shoved it in her book bag and was about to walk out the door when she bumped into something, more like someone. She looked up and smiled.

"Sorry I'm late, Rikku." The raven-haired boy smiled at her. "I was helping a friend with posters."

_Tch, probably Claire's posters. _Rikku shrugged, "Its okay. We'll catch-up tomorrow morning."

Still smiling at her, Damian said, "Yah, okay." They walked down the hall together. "Hey, I wanted to ask you something. If Claire wins that election, she's planning to throw a party, wanna come with me?"

She looked up into his ice-blue eyes. _Talk about being torn between the two. Did he forget that I want Yuna to win? I remember that I told him that I was her campaign manager. Ugh. _"Uh, well I was hoping for Yuna to win."

"Well, if you didn't want to go with me to the party, that's fine. You could've just said no."

Her eyes widen, "No, I do. It's just—"

"Good, then I'll see you there," he interrupted. He waves to her and walks into the nearest classroom, leaving her standing there.

"He didn't even let me finish." She mutters to herself and makes her way to class shaking her head.

**(O)·.¸(N)¸.·(E)·.¸(I)¸.·(R)·.¸(O)¸.·(M)·.¸(A)¸.·(N)·.¸(C)¸.·(Y)**

Gippal stretched his legs out under the desk and stared blankly at his Spira History textbook. The class was broken up into pairs to work on the questions that the teacher assigned. Gippal's partner was concentrating on his work so hard that by laying his head against the textbook he was absorbing the information.

Gippal elbowed the sleeping spiky haired blonde. "Hey Tidus."

"Huh, what?" He asked wiping at his mouth and looking at the one-eyed boy.

"We're supposed to be answering these questions." He gestured at the sheet of paper that had no answers on it, but ten lengthy questions.

"Yah, I know, I was just… absorbing the information by… y'know… resting my head on the book." He defended himself.

Gippal shook his head, "You're an idiot."

Tidus grinned sheepishly and picked up his pencil to doodle on the side of the worksheet. Gippal watched him draw; it was more entertaining than Spira History, that's for sure.

"What's with you and fishes?" Gippal asked as he realized what Tidus was drawing.

He looked up, "Huh, what do you mean?"

"Well you're drawing a fish and you used tuna on Yuna's posters."

"Oh. Yah, they're cool, I guess, plus Yuna rhymes with tuna. When it comes to campaign posters, I know they have to be catchy, luckily Yuna's name is great with rhymes." He said enthusiastically.

Gippal shook his head, "Okay, but just beware, Rikku saw them and wasn't quite happy."

He looked shocked, "I thought they were great."

"Well Yuna looked good on them, but the catch phrase, not really."

"I know!" He exclaimed, "Yuna photographs well." He said completely ignoring the second half of the sentence.

"Has Yuna seen the posters?"

"She's seen the pictures that were supposed to be on them, but I don't think she's officially seen the finished product. Do you think she'd get mad as Rikku?"

Gippal's eye widen, as a ball of paper was tossed at Tidus's head. Tidus turned to the direction of where it was thrown from to see an upset Yuna sitting next to a glaring Paine.

"Probably." He shrugs.

**

* * *

**

(O)·.¸(N)¸.·(E)·.¸(I)¸.·(R)·.¸(O)¸.·(M)·.¸(A)¸.·(N)·.¸(C)¸.·(Y)

**A/N: **I just realized this would've been better if I actually posted this on Election Day, but it didn't cross my mind. Tch, oh well. I'm sorry this came a whole week later than I actually even intended to. School is just… not cool, but just think Thanksgiving Break is coming up, so that gives me LOTS of free time, a whole week of free time. So look forward to Pt. 2 of this drawn out election whenever I write it. xP

I know my Tidus is OOC. :l But he's 'speshul' Now we all love Tidus. –pets and feeds him a cookie- Actually I find it extremely hard for me to even get them 'in character' since I have a vaaaaague remembrance of what they were like. D; Wait, no I lied, Gippal is just hard, he's not as cocky as I want him to be. Plus I haven't played the game since I started writing this, and it definitely doesn't help that the fanfics I do read are all FFVIII. O.o; Plus on the sidelines of this story, I write FFVIII fics, too, D; and I'm playing FFVII. Ha, sad, right? Well I thank you if you read that little rant.

Ohyes, would anybody recommend any must-read FFX-2 fanfics? x) Preferably Rikku and Gippal ones. :D That'd be lovely.

And thank you again for the reviews! –Hands out muffins- I really appreciate it since it's really encouraging. Also would like to give a hello to all those lurkers who read the story but don't review. x)


	8. EmphaticElectionPt2

**Devotion & Desire  
**_Chapter 8 – Emphatic Election Pt. 2  
_Written by: Oneiromancy

**Disclaimer:** I don't own FFX-2; or its characters but I do own Claire & Damian.

* * *

"Today's the big day, Yunie!" Rikku exclaimed as she alternated between hopping on one foot. "Are you ready to give your speech?"

Yuna smiled at her hyperactive cousin, "Yes, I am."

The week went by fairly quickly. Yuna's little presidential campaign was working overtime. They had to make up for the posters that Tidus created in an attempt at helping out. Yuna was quite upset about them. She knew that Tidus was just trying to help out, but the posters made everything that she wanted seem not as significant.

"I'm glad you're not mad at Tidus anymore." The blonde giggled. "Plus Paine definitely gave him a whooping about it."

A smile graced Yuna's face, "Yeah. He's busy sulking about it right now. I think he plans to get Paine back."

"Really? I always thought that Tidus was kinda afraid of Paine."

"Oh, he is, but he'd never admit to that."

"Hrm." Rikku said while tapping her head with her index finger. "Before I forget to tell you, if we win we're gonna have a party."

"You mean when."

Rikku gasped. "Yes! That's the spirit. When we win, we'll have a party. It'll be so much better than Claire's will ever be." She said deviously.

Yuna shook her head, "Whatever you want Rikku."

Before she could say another word, the loud speaker interrupted.

"Students running for a spot on the Student Council, please report to the auditorium."

Rikku squealed, "That's us. Let's go." She grabbed Yuna's hand and sort of dragged her to the backstage of the auditorium where a handful of students were congregating. The crowd that was there seemed to nervously stare down at their note cards as they did last minute rehearsing of their speeches. "Don't be nervous."

"I'm not."

"Okay, just making sure because…" Rikku peered out at the audience that was beginning to gather. "There are a lot of people out there. Wow, I didn't know there were so many juniors and seniors."

"Thank you for informing me Rikku but I already know."

"Your friend is right; wouldn't want to make a fool of yourself." A snooty voice said.

Rikku turned around and frowned at Claire. "She's not going to make a fool of herself. She knows what she's doing. I believe her speech will be ten times better than yours will."

Claire laughed and rolled her eyes, "Whatever you say. I just wanted to invite you guys to the party. It only seems fair. It'd be hard stomaching the lost."

"No one has lost yet. We'll see who gets the most votes." Yuna said quietly.

Claire stuck up her nose, "Well I already know I have Gippal's vote." She smiled sweetly and turned around to talk to her friends who were running for other positions.

"If Gippal votes for her, I'll have to kill him." Rikku whispered to Yuna. Yuna giggled at the thought of Rikku trying to strangle Gippal.

A voice interrupted the candidates. "If you're not making a speech, please go and take a seat now. We'll be starting soon."

Rikku turned to see LeBlanc standing off to the side. "Okay, well this is it. Good luck!"

"Thanks Rikku."

* * *

Gippal looked around the auditorium as students were taking seats next to their friends. He was sitting in the second seat from the aisle, right next to Tidus and the empty aisle seat was for Rikku. He frowned when Tidus spoke again.

"Do you think she's still mad at me?"

He stretched his arm across the empty seat and slouched down more and said, "Don't think so." He grinned, "Yuna's got you whipped."

Tidus turned to look at him and denied, "She does not."

Gippal nodded, "Yeah she does." He looked around and spotted Lenne and Shuyin. "Out of curiosity, if you weren't with Yuna who would you date?"

The blue-eyed blonde looked at him oddly. "I don't know. Yuna is the one for me."

Gippal rolled his eye. "Humor me. You can pick any girl, whether or not she's dating someone."

Tidus looked lost in thought for a moment. "I guess Rikku. She's pretty cool."

"I see." He didn't know why but did he feel a tinge of jealousy. _Nah. She's practically like a sister._ His stomach churned at that statement.

"What about you?"

"I'm not sure. I've only been here for a few weeks now."

"I'm pretty sure you have someone in mind. Don't tell Yuna I said Rikku though."

"Said my name for what?" Rikku asked out of nowhere.

Gippal turned around to see her standing at the end of their aisle. Tidus gaped like a goldfish hoping that Rikku didn't hear what they were talking about. Gippal spoke, "That you were going to throw a party if she wins."

Rikku flounced into her seat, "Oh. I already told her. And Tidus, she's not mad at you. And Gippal what is this about you going to vote for Claire?"

Gippal frowned. He only said that he'd vote for Claire to stop her from pestering him. The whole election thing was getting on his nerves. "If you guys keep this up I don't plan on voting at all."

Rikku gasped, "Yes you are, and you're going to vote for Yunie!"

"Whatever."

The Al-Bhed girl studied her long-time friend as he stared blankly at the stage.

Feeling her green eyes on him, Gippal shifted in his seat and looked down at her. "What?"

She stuck out her tongue, "Nothing."

Gippal shook his head and turned back to the stage as a sharply dressed blonde walked across to the podium and announced that they were going to be starting with the speeches for treasurer and then working their way up.

He closed his eyes. This was boring and he was tired. Rikku spent the whole night jabbering on and on about the election and how excited she was. There was only so much that he could listen to that.

He felt a jab in his side. He glared at Rikku while she grinned up at him and leaned over and whispered to him, "You were snoring." Her perfume tickled his nose. She smelled nice.

His eyebrows furrowed and he whispered back, "It's not me." He turned to look at Tidus on his other side. Sure enough, Tidus was slouched down and was lightly snoring. Gippal poked him and Tidus practically jumped from his seat.

"What?!" He whispered angrily.

"You were snoring," Gippal replied coolly while Rikku giggled.

Tidus rolled his eyes before closing them again. Gippal leaned back over to Rikku, "Told you it wasn't me."

"Shhh. I'm listening."

Gippal sighed and listened to the candidate that was running for Vice President. The guy talked about all the changes that he planned to make, something about the school motto, then something about parking privileges. He had to laugh to himself; really the Vice President doesn't do anything but probably just show up and back the President up. He betted that the students could care less who was elected, and would probably just vote for their friends if they were running for a position. Doesn't matter how bad their speech was.

The boy who was on stage finished his speech. Now for the President speeches, Yuna walked out on stage. Yuna cleared her throat and spoke into the mic, "Hello. I'm Yuna and I'm running for President. I'm not going to make silly promises about things that can't be done. I cannot change the structure of classes or make a class meant for just napping, but I can help organize committees. We can make this school a better place…"

Gippal listened to her speech. She brought up some good points. If underclassmen could vote they'd probably have voted for her. Gippal looked at of the corner of his eye at Rikku who was sitting on his left. She was smiling from ear to ear and nodding at every word that Yuna was saying. He smiled at how silly she looked.

"I'm not going to tell you to vote for me. I want you to vote for someone you feel that is qualified for this position. Someone you know who will get things done. Thank you for listening."

There was an explosion of applause from the audience. Tidus jumped up from the sound since he dozed off again. "Oh whaaat. Did I miss Yuna's speech?"

Gippal laughed, "Yeah. I'm not quite sure how Claire is going to top that."

"That was awesome!" Rikku exclaimed.

The applause died down as Claire took the stage. She looked determined on topping Yuna's speech. She started out with introductions, but what she said made everyone jaw drop. Everyone knew that Tidus and Yuna had been dating for quite some time.

"If I were you I wouldn't vote for someone whose boyfriend is a cheat." A gasp escaped through the audience. "That's right. My sources tell me that Tidus, Yuna's boyfriend, just claimed that he'd date Rikku who's Yuna's cousin. Amazing, right?"

Claire has the ability to take some serious speech and turn it into gossip to get people to vote for her. Gippal widened his eye and turned to a red-faced Tidus and then to Rikku who looked extremely bewildered.

Claire said her final statement, waved, then skipped off stage. A hush whisper rippled throughout the auditorium. It was like a flock of locusts when they invaded to eat crops. The uproar got louder.

Tidus looked over at Gippal. "How does she know?"

Rikku gasped, "Oh my God, is it true?"

Tidus raised both his hands in defense, "No! I love Yuna!"

Rikku looked ready to start hyperventilating, Gippal rubbed her back. "Rikku, it was just guy talk. I asked him if he wasn't dating Yuna, who he would date. Someone must've overheard him."

The green-eyed blond girl frowned and rubbed her hands over her face. Gippal looked around at the people sitting around them, listening to their conversation. "C'mon guys, now is not the time to talk about it. Tidus go talk to Yuna and explain to her. Rikku, I'll take you to class. Don't worry about it."

Both the blondes solemnly nodded and Rikku led the little procession out of the aisle.

**

* * *

A/N: I'm sorry for such a long delay in updating this chapter. I'd state my excuses and reasons why but it won't change the fact that this is long overdue. So instead, I thank those that review and hopefully I'll write another chapter soon.**


	9. Arguments&Apologies

**Devotion & Desire  
**_Chapter 9: Arguments and Apologies  
_Written By: Oneiromancy

**Disclaimer:** I do not own FFX-2 or its characters but I do own Claire and Damian.

* * *

"Are you going to be okay, Yunie?" Rikku asked for the millionth time later that afternoon. 

No answer.

The two of them were in Yuna's room. Yuna sprawled on her bed, face down in her pillow. Rikku was sitting on the edge of the bed looking at her crestfallen cousin.

Rikku reached next to her and picked up the closest stuff animal. "This is cute. Where'd you get it?" It was an adorable overstuffed chubby moogle. Its little red pom-pom bobbed as Rikku wiggled its head.

Yuna lifted her head off the pillow to look at the stuff animal that Rikku was holding. Her eyes started to water. "It's from Tidus," she said quietly.

"Ooooh. Yuna, I didn't know." _Oh crap._ "I'm just trying to take your mind off of him."

"It's okay." Her voice was muffled into the pillow. "Could you just leave me alone for a while?"

"Yeah. Sure." Rikku set the moogle back onto the bed and headed towards the door. Before leaving she took one look at her cousin. _I need to fix this… but how? _She closed the door behind her and made her way downstairs to the kitchen and set herself down in the seat of the kitchen's only occupant.

Gippal handed her an empty bowl and started scooping ice cream from the carton laid out in front of him. If it was one thing he remembered from when they were kids was that ice cream was Rikku's favorite consoling companion when she was feeling down.

"Thanks." Rikku said as she dug her spoon into the frozen treat.

"No problem. So how's she holding up?" Gippal asked as he scooped himself another bowl.

"Not well. I still can't believe Tidus said he wanted anyone besides her. What kind of guy does that?"

"It's not his fault. I'm to blame for even asking."

Rikku glared at him and shoved another spoonful of ice cream in her mouth.

"He's sorry too. You know how clueless he is. He wants to make it up to her."

"It's not your fault or even his. It's all Claire's. Why did she have to announce to the school?" She let out an exasperated sigh. "How did anyone hear you guys?"

"I'm surprised that this stuff traveled fast."

"Oh, I know. Who was sitting behind us anyways?"

"I don't remember. Most likely they were friends of Claire's."

"Hmph, at least Claire didn't even win the election, but she still seemed pleased with ruining Yunie and Tidus's relationship."

"I talked to Claire already; she said she was sorry about this whole mess. She wants to make it up so she's throwing a congratulation party for Yuna tomorrow night at her house."

Rikku frowned, "You talked to Claire? You should've been there for Yuna or even comforting Tidus!"

"I just wanted to get things straightened out with her. She's not as bad as you think. She just had the election thing get to her head. She's upset that she lost."

"UPSET?! She ruined a three year relationship in front of the school population. Did you think that maybe I'm upset?"

"I know you're upset because Yuna is upset, but as long as I've known you, you will put everybody first before yourself."

Rikku sighed. "All I keep doing today is sighing. If I keep it up, I'd be out of breath."

Gippal laughed. "Well you need to turn that frown upside down, missy. I figured you'd have a plan by now to get Yuna and Tidus back together."

She broke out into a grin, "Oh, I do. I was just thinking about it when you mentioned that Claire was going to throw a party. What better way for Tidus to apologize then to do it in front of everyone at Claire's party."

"And how exactly would he do that?" Gippal inquired.

"Well, that's for you and him to figure out." She shrugged. "I can't think of everything. I'm sure anything he does will be fine. Yuna doesn't stay upset at Tidus for long."

"Always making me do the dirty work," Gippal said while shaking his head. "Still the same."

Rikku laughed and said, "We'll commence operation 'Tidus Win Yuna Back' starting now. You go call Tidus about the idea and I'll go inform Yuna about the party and maybe her mood will pick up." She said as she plopped her empty ice cream bowl into the sink.

"All right," Gippal agreed and just as Rikku was about to leave the room he said, "Wait, Rikku."

She whirled around, "What?"

He grinned at her, "If Tidus wasn't trying to win back Yuna's love, would you have gone out with him?"

Rikku's eyes widened in surprise and quickly narrowed into a glare, "GIPPAL!"

* * *

Gippal chuckled to himself as he wandered around the Claire's living room searching for Tidus. He nodded in acknowledgement to all the people he knew. _Where could he be? He's supposed to be here now. _Tidus and Gippal stayed up late the other night thinking of a plan to win back Yuna. One to show how sorry Tidus and how much he loved her. 

He spotted Yuna and Rikku across the room sitting in a love seat near the widescreen TV. Rikku was aimlessly staring at the TV while Yuna had a polite smile plastered on her face as she conversed with two of her classmates.

"Excuse me, hope you guys don't mind if I borrow Rikku for a bit." The girls turned to look up at the interruption.

Rikku smiled, "I'll be right back, Yunie." Yuna smiled in return and turned back to the conversation.

The two Al-Bheds walked off into a corner where no one can hear them. "Where's Tidus?" Rikku asked.

"I don't know. He should've been here by now." He almost laughed at the look that Rikku was giving him. Her lips were pursed together in a pout and her eyes were narrowed at him. If she puffed out her cheeks she'd look like a monkey. _She wouldn't be happy if I mentioned that, even if she loves monkeys._

He must've looked out of it just staring at her because Rikku slapped him on his upper arm. "Pay attention and stop giving me that look!"

"What look?" He asked innocently.

"That look!"

He shrugged. "I don't know what you're talking about." Rikku rolled her eyes and he chuckled. "As I was saying, Tidus was supposed to come in and…" his voice trailed as he watched Tidus make an entrance into the room.

Tidus stumbled into the room and walked right up to Yuna. Yuna stared up at him, her face struck in horror at his state. His clothes were wrinkled as if he slept overnight in them. He took Yuna's hand and yanked her up from the sofa in a not so graceful motion. She let out a yelp of surprise.

"What do you think you're doing," she hissed at him.

It almost seemed like time stopped. Everybody turned to see the commotion that was occurring and the room went silent except for the conversation between the new student council president and her ex.

Rikku fidgeted uncomfortably. She had a feeling this was going to turn out bad. Gippal frowned, Tidus seemed normal the other night when he talked to him.

"Nothing, babe." Tidus words slurred together. "I just wanted to tell you how much I love you and want to be with you."

Yuna's shocked facial expression quickly turned into disgust. Tidus was definitely not in the right state of mind to be making an apology or any declarations such as this.

"Oh my…" Rikku's voice faltered. "Is he drunk?" She asked Gippal quietly.

"I believe so." Gippal replied in the same quiet tone. _Idiot. He's definitely trying to screw up his chances._

"And did he just call Yuna, 'babe'?" Rikku asked as if she was unsure of what she even heard herself.

"Yes he did."

"Yuna doesn't like being called 'babe'." She stated.

Since Yuna wasn't saying anything and all attention was on him, Tidus took the moment to face everyone. _Uh oh…_ Gippal panicked for a moment as Tidus felt the need to be taller than everyone as he climbed on top of the coffee table in front of the love seat. He was still holding Yuna's hand as she watched him helplessly mortified not knowing what to do.

"I, Tidus, would like to tell of you that I love this woman." He raised his left hand that was holding onto hers. "She is the most amazing-"

"What the…" A shrill voice trailed.

It was like a scene from a movie being played out in front of the crowd. Here was the protagonist declaring his undying love for his lover in front of an audience who possibly admired his courage and devotion for the woman that he so wrongfully hurt. Now entered the villain that destroyed everything between them and now was going to ruin more of it.

"Tidus get off my coffee table and out of my house!" Claire demanded. "No one wants you here especially Yuna so quit bothering her!"

Rikku's eyes widen and Gippal gaped in amazement. Claire was defending Yuna as if she were her best friend. What the hell was going on? But what about Tidus? _Okay, maybe it's not one of his bright ideas to stand on her table, but still. He almost looked like he was going to win Yuna over._

As if snapping out of some trance as the room buzzed in whispers, he hopped off the table and let go of Yuna's hand. With his head bent down in guilt, he left the house.

"Our plan is falling apart."

"What he did wasn't even part of the plan."

"I know." Rikku sighed. "Okay, you go find Tidus and I'm gonna talk to Yunie."

"All right," Gippal confirmed, and then the two blondes set off in different directions.

Yuna hadn't said anything since Tidus had left the room. Claire was talking animatedly to her about how much Tidus is a loser and how she deserved someone better. One that wouldn't cheat on her with her cousin.

Rikku stood there in momentary shock, "Excuse me, but he didn't cheat on her."

Claire glanced at her and rolled her eyes, "Of course you would deny it. You want Yunie to be miserable."

The Al-Bhed was getting irritated. What right did Claire have to use the nickname she used for Yuna. It was hers! Plus to accuse her of being a boyfriend stealer. How dare she!

"Right, Yuna?" Yuna eyes stayed downcast as Claire ushered her out of the room leaving Rikku standing alone.

_What just happened? Ugh, I just know Claire is up to something evil. Just watch. She knows how Yuna is vulnerable right now. And what is with her using my nickname for her. I better go tell Gippal and Tidus._ Rikku set off to find them.

**

* * *

A/N:** Oh my. I didn't mean to make Claire this evil. xDD I'm sorry for the delay of this chapter. ;l I had half of it written when I posted the last chapter and just forgot about it so the last half of the content of this chapter was oddly a last minute twist of plot. Yuna siding with Claire. Oh no! As always, thank you so much for the reviews. I love you all for that. «3. 


End file.
